Jefferson City 3: Charlie - The Ranger

Something is wrong, but it's also not wrong. They'd hear a noise coming from around the corner of one of the buildings, the robot from before suddenly bursting from around it, charging straight at the trio, its hooves heavy against the ground. However, it appeared slower from when Liltotto had fought it and multiple parts of its body seemed to be missing, armored areas exposed and sparking.

That did not stop it from charging the three, green energy appearing around its body as it turned itself into a bullet that hoped for nothing more than to murder the three right then and there.

She hardly needed to hear it's footsteps to know full damn well it was coming, she recognized that wafting of energy pounding their way. Immediately she went to Daniel right as the machine moved to round the corner, hardly even thinking about Lion's fate as she was intent on preserving their own. In that instant, she grabbed the boy's arm and began dragging him with little apology or warning into the nearest alleyway with only the slight gesture to Kokuto to get a move on before vanishing into the smaller spaces, quickly searching her surroundings as she tried to make sure they were in a place where Daniel could keep running if needed before pulling him toward her and gripping his shoulders with intent, a fierceness in her gaze,

"Daniel, I understand you want us to be together on this," She'd calmly yet quickly speak as she heard those footsteps grow closer, "But if you fight that thing, You. Will. Die. I don't want you to think i'm pushing you to the side, but you'd be helping us a lot more if you stayed where that thing can't reach you. I have my com line open, if anything happens try to contact me immediately. Keep yourself safe, if you hear anything sort of loud crumbling or splintering sounds, assume a building is about to fall - keep moving if that's the case."

With a tense shake, she'd add to emphasize, "Do NOT go out in the open unless your cover isn't safe anymore."

Releasing his shoulders, she'd quickly reemerge from the alleyway, her weapon shifting and transforming into a bow as she'd pull the draw back and fire a single arrow into the air, her gaze looking about for Kokuto as she was fully intent on one thing,

"HEY RUSTFUCK!" She'd yell, firing a single arrow at the head of the machination to further annoy and draw it's attention, "HERE!"

With that, she'd make a break for it in the opposite direction - away from where she left Daniel to lure the enemy someplace where he wouldn't get caught up in the collateral damage, at least a block or two away if she could manage it.

"KOKUTO!"

The loud noise of the quadrupedal robot making its presence known snapped Daniel out of his train of thought and brought him back to reality. This was the thing that Liltotto had fought correct? The thing she couldn't take down solo? He supposed the three of them had a better chance than any one person alone and got ready to cast a spell to form some kind of distraction before he was violently dragged away, dropping his silver cylinder in the process, and causing the spell to fizzle. The surprise at what was going on causing him to momentarily panic before he realized Liltotto had dragged him to an alleyway. For a few seconds Daniel was confused, maybe she wanted to discuss strategy, but then that thought was crushed.

More like he was crushed. She thought so little of him to believe there was no chance that he could help them, not even a tiny bit, and in his mind a few thoughts that he had kept buried since joining the Vandenreich entered his mind. So that was what this was? They weren't comrades, he was the baby to be babysat, and in the first bad situation he was to be stowed away for protection. He appreciated the thought, that they wanted to protect him, and all, but not like this. Not in this way. Before he could say anything she was already gone, he was being left alone again, and the only one to blame for that was himself. He was a weakling in a world filled with gods that were above his pay grade.

"Handpicked my ass..."

Daniel scoffed as the only thing he could say was drowned out by the sound of the machine drawing closer. He grit his teeth and clenched his fists, panic fading to unyielding rage, and disappointment. What could he do? How could he do it? Now was not the time to dwell on being treated poorly for just existing, for not being up to snuff, and not being the perfect team mate that they needed.

"So what are you going to do about it, Daniel? Do what you're told again?"

Daniel stood there, deep in thought, and remembered the earlier strategy they had used against the mechanical quasi-quincy. They had used a small EMP spell to cause damage to their electrical systems and while Daniel was unsure if something that small could effectively damage this machine, he wondered if a bigger version of that spell could do some work here. Yes, maybe that would work. He would need time and his teammates were giving him that time, hopefully. He began to gather reishi from around him, hoping that maybe he could magnify the power of the EMP spell he had made earlier by increasing the number of cylinders and by increasing the amount of energy gathered. It would not be a swift cast spell and it would take time, but maybe. Just maybe.

Kokuto's danger sense sung loud as he looked around, his body moving before he could think as flames erupted from his hands and feet to propel him forward. As Liltotto went to drag Daniel out of the way, Kokuto surged toward the charging mecha-monster, using his entire body like a missile as he crashed into the thing, intent on diverting its path, or, at best, sending it flying in the opposing direction of his two companions.

Channeling more energy throughout and around his body, his flames began to turn blue, raising the temperature tens of hundreds of feet away, with heat waves causing visible warpage to the air around them as the demon's skin slowly began turning red. The moment he heard Liltotto call his name, his body shot from its place like a meteor, intending on once again slamming into the creature with the force of a tank round, causing blue flames to erupt from the impact.

Even if his flames, somehow, weren't able to melt the hide off their mechanical adversary, his strength and the overall power of his flames assuredly had to have some effect, whether it be affecting its electronics, or warping the metal itself, Kokuto hoped to at least do some level of damage to it as he sought to push it away from where Daniel was, over to where Liltotto was wanting to lead it to.

Pzzt. Two lifeforms detected. Pzzt. Activate Super speed. Pzzt.

That same energy Liltotto had felt before from the machine began to permeate the air around it as its hooves transformed. The arrow she had fired was easily dodged as it moved its head, and Kokuto would find his advance dodged. However, it was simply dodged as the machine released a torrent of energy from its body before it simply vanished without a trace or even being detectable, the only sign it was still in the area proving the shattering glass of the buildings where it moved. It all happened too fast though, one second, it's there, and the other, it's not before they'd sense it as it stopped between them, steam erupting from its body as it pointed both its arms, one at Liltotto, and the other at Kokuto.

Pzzt. Full power. Pzzt.

Green energy gathered from the canons that its hands had turned into before it fired two powerful lasers at the two, the output enough to blow through the buildings if they dodged.

Her feet moved faster than her thoughts, the rush of adrenaline in the face of the mechanical threat enough to keep her active. Amber eyes proactively traced it's movements, the fast beast attempting to lose her sight, but she sensed the movement of it's presence,

"BETWEEN US!" She'd yell right as it reappeared, prepared to blow the both of them away with it's incoming attack. Her stance dropped immediately as she made an incredibly intention run toward the machine, narrowly falling out of the way of the laser's strike as she used reishi to reduce the friction of her sliding path directly to the beast, her bow pointed up with a strange looking tip, as if a familiar light and darkness were compressed into the tip. As the beast was busy attacking, the blonde would be making ways to slide underneath it, and right as she reached the apex of it's underside form, she'd release the taut arrow as her trajectory kept her going far past the creature and back onto her feet as the arrow detonated if the movement was executed well.

A sphere of Reißen was embedded into the arrow's point, in which the arrow's strike into it's underside would lead to a burst of erosive energy chewing away at the points it managed to touch in hopes it added to the machine's compromised integrity.

Before he felt any kind of impact, the energy signature suddenly vanished. Without a moment's hesitation, chains erupted from the broken bonds around his wrists, reaching out to latch on to the architecture around them. Eventually, they hooked onto something, and as they halted his movement, they were quick to alter his trajectory and launch Kokuto upward.

As the thing reappeared, his upward momentum allowed him to narrowly dodge the sudden blast of a laser, only taking the time to guess the damage and potential of the blast through the sounds of the buildings as they took the brunt. Detaching from the buildings around them, Kokuto loosed the chains downward to wrap around the creature and pull himself downward toward its arms, turning himself into a cobalt-colored meteor strike as he once again tried to make a direct, powerful impact with enough force to put tank rounds to shame.

While Liltotto was trying to literally chew through the underside of the thing, Kokuto instead went to try and focus his strength into crippling it's offense.

The machine had only accounted for Kokuto and Liltotto, even the machine didn't seem to value him as much of a life form at that very moment, and if Daniel had known that he would have been insulted. Or maybe Daniel in that moment wouldn't have cared? Why should he care, after all, about something that was going to be a broken husk after the THREE of them were done with it? Anger was a hell of a motivator and Daniel had years of repressed anger and frustration that had been boiling inside of him for so long and he was just looking for a particular outlet to unleash it upon.

Peering from behind the wall of the building he was told to hide in, seeing the destruction unfurling around the three combatants, Daniel decided that outlet would be using this spell upon that machine. He began to chant, concluding his spell while holding his bag with what was his last stockpile of cylinders, and then threw his bag at the machine only a few words of his chant heard over the sound of the fighting going on. The spell was not complex, but with the amount of cylinders, and the time gathering necessary reishi to make the spell much stronger it would hopefully do the trick it was suppose to.

"The heaven's roar, surge forth, and become a bane of machines!"

A shout from behind the wall could be heard over the sound of crashing buildings as the bag slid on asphalt to the feet of the quadrupedal machine. It sat there for only a second before the entire bag exploded, not in a combustive way, but as reishi that had been collecting surged forth shredding the bag in the process. If the spell was successful the released reishi would take the form of an EMP, entering into the small cracks between plating, and specifically targeting the electrical currents inside of the wiring of the legs, potentially hindering mobility, and temporarily immobilizing it. Hopefully to give an opening to his allies to take down the machine while he maintained distance from the conflict proper.

In a way he was following orders, but he was also doing it in his own way, and still trying to be helpful.

Being a robot, it did not rely on humane senses, readily knowing what was coming next from its combatants. However, as it began to move, its sensors picked up a spike in energy, turning its head towards the bag that was thrown. That's when its hindleg then popped, errors flashing under its visor. Something's interfering with its ability to move, but a quick dislodge of that leg would allow it the ability to retreat and counter. Then its arm was captured, but it then decided to dislodge it as well, leaving Kokuto without a proper anchor to pull down with, weakening his descent.

Liltotto would attack though, sliding under it, but that's when she'd find it not a common machine, her attack hitting against sparking green energy that felt like hitting a reinforced steel door. Even as her attack started to eat at the robot, its energy seemed to resist the spread, but that wouldn't really matter as the robot started to move, even with only three legs. It would attempt to distance itself from Daniel's attempt to immobilize it, that green energy that had powered it from before building up as it prepared to disappear from their sight.

Though, that's when the shadow under it would bubble, tendrils shooting up around its remaining legs. Daniel's attack landed immediately after, a sudden jolt running through the robot as its systems began seizing up. Parts of its body started to pop and break off as the energy it had running through it started going haywire without its systems functioning to allow it to flow properly.

"Pzzt. Abort Sequence... Bzzt. Activate. Pzzt."

Kokuto would land against its frame, the upper half of it dislodging from the main body as all of its systems focused entirely on escape, more of its body falling off until only its head remained which would fire a booster from where its neck would normally be as it flew upwards as its main body exploded from Kokuto's impact, its frame already weakened and weakening further from Liltotto's corrosive attack.

And then, things would simply go quiet, the burning robots body cackling in the wind, leaving the three for a few moments to collect themselves, but they wouldn't be alone for long until a familiar blonde man appeared from the shadows of a building, smiling. He's missing his left arm, but he did not seem concerned with that fact.

"Haha! Good job! It seems I didn't even need to use my plan after all!" He laughed out.

..It was over.

Lungs burning, she'd look over to the resulted carnage of their assault, a slurry of scents hitting her senses. Two in particular caught her attention - that of Lion's which gave her relief for his safety, and...

Giving the fallen creature a look over, she checked it over to ensure it had fallen, her mouth suddenly extending and moving in to clasp onto and bite it's head off, eating at it's innards for any parts that even resembled an engine, the taste of metal, grease, and other parts tainting her mouth with horrid flavors. Once satisfied, she'd lean off it's eviscerated corpse - Damn thing better not get up again... But that was behind them now, her released state allowed to calmly revert to her typical state as her attention would draw to the alcove Daniel was hidden in, a rush of speed putting her toward him, before quickly slowing down...

...She immediately pulled him into a hug. Hardly a thought or word was put toward it, she just gave the young man the strongest hug she could manage, relief and feeling near to tearing up. Once she heard Lion's boisterous laugh, however, her hold of warmth and relief eased away, looking at him with a sour look.

"You're laughing," She'd speak clear and loud enough to be heard, but with a quiet tremble that conveyed a mix of disappointment and irritation, "Over ninety-percent of our squad is possibly dead, and you're laughing and calling a good job? The fuck is wrong with you?"

Even in her increasingly irritated voice, she couldn't help but hold Daniel within an arm's reach, "This is beyond our team's capabilities! They could've died- I thought you were dead! Everyone else likely is dead! Take this seriously for five goddamn seconds; there's only four of us left out of a stocked squad, we have no chance. What if another one of those things pop out of nowhere and attack us? Damn the mission at this point, we gotta back out and regroup with outside unless you want to die."

Her nose curled, "Screw 'honor' or 'pride for the Vandenreich', I know a hopeless charge when I see one."